Abstract:
Individuals with autism typically experience a range of symptoms, including abnormal sensory sensitivities. However, there are conflicting reports on the sensory profiles that characterize the sensory experience in autism that often depend on the type of stimulus. Here, we examine early auditory processing to simple changes in pitch and later auditory processing of more complex emotional utterances. We measured electroencephalography in 24 adults with autism and 28 controls. First, tones (1046.5Hz/C6, 1108.7Hz/C#6, or 1244.5Hz/D#6) were repeated three times or nine times before the pitch changed. Second, utterances of delight or frustration were repeated three or six times before the emotion changed. In response to the simple pitched tones, the autism group exhibited larger mismatch negativity (MMN) after nine standards compared to controls and produced greater trial-to-trial variability (TTV). In response to the prosodic utterances, the autism group showed smaller P3 responses when delight changed to frustration compared to controls. There was no significant correlation between ERPs to pitch and ERPs to prosody. Together, this suggests that early auditory processing is hyper-sensitive in autism whereas later processing of prosodic information is hypo-sensitive. The impact the different sensory profiles have on perceptual experience in autism may be key to identifying behavioral treatments to reduce symptoms.
摘要:
自闭症患者通常会出现一系列症状,包括异常的感觉敏感性。然而,关于自闭症感觉体验的感觉特征的报道相互矛盾,这些感觉特征通常取决于刺激的类型。这里,我们检查早期听觉处理到简单的音高变化和后期听觉处理的更复杂的情绪话语。我们测量了24名自闭症成年人和28名对照者的脑电图。首先,音调(1046.5Hz/C6,1108.7Hz/C#6或1244.5Hz/D#6)在音高改变之前重复三次或九次。第二,在情绪改变之前,高兴或沮丧的话语重复了三到六次。为了回应简单的音调,与对照组相比,孤独症组在9项标准后表现出更大的错配负性(MMN),并产生更大的试验间变异性(TTV).为了回应韵律的话语,与对照组相比,自闭症组的P3反应较小。ERPs与音高和ERPs与韵律之间没有显着相关性。一起,这表明自闭症患者的早期听觉处理是超敏感的,而对韵律信息的后期处理是低敏感的.不同的感官概况对自闭症感知体验的影响可能是确定行为治疗以减轻症状的关键。